Bill O’Reilly compares President Barack Obama to Richard Nixon

Disgraced Republican president Richard Nixon believed in appointing his own cronies to investigate his excesses. Now, Fox New's prize pundit claims he can see Nixon's shadow in President Barack Obama's latest moves.

According to the Huffington Post, O'Reilly claimed Obama was acting like Nixon when he announced an investigation this week into potential White House leaks.

The administration was responding to two New York Times stories that revealed national security details that critics claim could only have come from the White House.

Pugnacious pundit O'Reilly echoed this claim on his show on Thursday evening, adding that he believed the person who leaked the story to the Times on US cyber attacks against Iran 'should go to prison for a long time.'

But nonetheless O'Reilly added that he thought the administrations strong response to the controversy was 'disturbing.'

O'Reilly noted that Attorney General Eric Holder has appointed two US attorneys to investigate the leaks. One is a Republican but the other, Ronald Machen, has donated money to the Obama campaign. Right-wing bloggers have criticized the move and O'Reilly added his name to the list on Thursday evening.

'I mean, come on if the fix isn't in on that appointment, there is no such thing as a fix,' O'Reilly scoffed. 'Are you telling me with hundreds of U.S. attorneys, Machen is the guy to do this? It's unbelievable and it's arrogant. Do the Obama people think I wasn't going to report this and other honest press people weren't going to mention it?'

Manchen's appointment had 'shades of Richard Nixon' about it, O'Reilly suggested, reminding viewers that Nixon had tried to get away with Watergate by appointing 'cronies like John Mitchell investigate it.'